MALAYSIA has recorded 106,477 cases of the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), up to the 24th epidemiology week (ME) from June 12-18.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a statement today, said this was an increase of 39 times compared with the total cases for the same period last year with 2,710 cases.

“If compared with 31,500 cases for the same period in 2019 (before the Covid-19 pandemic), it showed a 3.4 times increase. The cases reported nationwide for ME24 was 10,556 cases, a 19.3% drop compared with ME23 with 13,077 cases,” he said.

Noor Hisham said Selangor logged the highest number of cases, at 29,880, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (11,687), Perak (10,938), Johor (7,052) and Kelantan (6,532). 

He said according to age, 95,175 children aged six and below were infected with the disease. A total of 9,183 others were children aged seven to 12.

The outbreaks were mostly at nurseries, kindergartens and preschools, at 1,131 (56%), followed by private homes (794 or 40%) and childcare centres (57 or 4%), he said.

An outbreak is defined as an incident of HFMD with two or more cases in a locality and the cases are epidemiologically related as well as during the incubation period of HFMD. – Bernama, June 21, 2022.